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Washington's Blog: This is not Hollywood versus Silicon Valley, as oldmedia likes to frame it. This is Hollywood versus The People. For decades, they have trained us to think in black and white, in good versus evil fighting for domination of the free world. And now, they’ve gone and put themselves i...

By Nile Bowie: For anyone paying attention, there is no shortage of issues that fundamentally challenge the underpinning moral infrastructure of American society and the values it claims to uphold. Under the conceptual illusion of liberty, few things are more sobering than the amount of Americans who will spend the rest of their lives in an isolated correctional facility – ostensibly, being corrected.

As the world begins to digest the implications of intellectual property for online censorship, another IP issue threatens an even more fundamental part of our daily lives: our food supply. Backed by legal precedent and armed with seemingly inexhaustible lobbying funds, a handful of multinationals are attempting to use patents on life itself to monopolize the biosphere.

‎"The US is famous for going to other countries with goals ranging from retaliation to installing democracy to stopping a civil war. And quite often the US government and the military alike are surprised at what they find: that people in those countries don't want them there and, in many cases, will risk or sacrifice their lives to make sure they leave."

In this online interactive I-book, we bring to the attention of our readers a selection of feature articles on the Syrian crisis. Our objective is to dispel the tide of media lies and government propaganda, which presents the events in Syria as a "peaceful protest movement".

Contribution to Brian Lehrer's and John Horgan's discussion at WNYC of "Is War Inevitable?" with David Swanson

"So add it up. Bomb teams with proven US/Israeli assassination expertise and methodology; target countries that are major Iranian partners; desired effect of further isolating Iran internationally; and, to cap it all, a long sought-after pretext for Israel to attack Iran with America’s blessing. When logic and facts coincide like this, it’s usually more prudent to engage in reason than to indulge in lurid claims."

by Finian Cunningham: The latest claims emanating from Tel Aviv that its foreign diplomats are being targeted for assassination by Iran could provide a fatal trigger for long-held war plans.

We will never accept that history will be rewritten by the invading powers that illegally occupied a sovereign country... "To initiate a war of aggression is essentially an evil thing… It is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole", according to the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, which followed World War II.

by Dirk Adriaensens: To date, no US official has been held accountable for US policies leading to abuse in Iraq, or for the lies that started the war. Despite the decreased US presence in Iraq, the country has been permanently affected.

"Global governance depends on cooperation among sovereign states, but in matters of war and peace the world order system remains resolutely vertical and under the control of geopolitical actors, perhaps as few as one, who are unwilling to restrict their military activities to the confines of territorial boundaries, but insist on their prerogative to manage coercively the planet as a whole."

by Prof. Richard Falk: As with nuclear weaponry, climate change, and respect for the carrying capacity of the earth, we who are alive at present may be the last who have even the possibility of upholding the life prospects of future generations.

"Find local solutions, pursue self-sufficiency, self-reliance, and leverage technology to do for ourselves tomorrow what we depend on corporations to do for us today. We can start today, by simply "voting" local with our wallets, "voting" to read, watch, and listen to truly independent media instead of Hollywood - or better yet - creating our own content ourselves... There is a thriving alternative media that already proves the merits of doing more, doing better, and doing it all ourselves."

by Tony Cartalucci: There are several pertinent examples illustrating how imperialism is still alive and well, and only cleverly disguised with updated nomenclatures.

We bring to the attention of our reader's the Observers Mission Report of the League of Arab States to Syria. The report acknowledges the existence of "an armed entity" involved in the killings of civilians and police as well as the conduct of terrorist acts, which contributed to triggering actions by government forces.

Commentary by Michel Chossudovsky: While the Mission does not identify the foreign powers behind "the armed entity", the report dispels the mainstream media lies and fabrications. It largely confirms independent media reports including Global Research's coverage of the armed insurrection since April...

A report recently released by DEBKAfile, an Israeli military intelligence website, which is believed to have close links to Israeli intelligence sources, has shown that the UK is providing logistical support to armed terrorist groups in Syria. Interview with Michel Chossudovsky.

by Michel Chossudovsky and Finian Cunningham: If somehow the weasel words from Washington could be taken at face value, then if it were serious about wanting regime change to facilitate democracy, human rights and world peace, the first regime that pre-eminently qualifies for such change is Washingt...

"If you're like us, you feel an eerie parallel between the lies about Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction and the warmongering taking place in Washington and the media around Iran. As President Bush once reminded us, we can't get fooled again.

We've put together a simple White House petition calling on President Obama to keep us out of a war with Iran. Please sign it: http://wh.gov/84h

by Tom Burghardt: When the European Union declared that it will impose an oil embargo on the Islamic Republic, it set the stage for a new escalation of the Western-created crisis over claims that Iran has an active nuclear weapons program.

"The propaganda fog over Iran in particular is becoming so thick it is almost laughable – because the political leaders who are spouting this fog don’t even seem to realize just how much they are tripping up over their own absurd statements. And thanks, in a way, to the pathetically servile mainstream media, the lies and deceptions of these political figures are being exposed for all their worthlessness and criminality."

Time to THINK!

by David Swanson: This is the only way to unite the region. Either we bomb Iran and it swears its eternal love to us. Or, if necessary, we occupy Iran to liberate it like its neighbors. Which shouldn't take long. Look how well Afghanistan is going already.

To understand the complex web of deceit aimed at luring the American people and the rest of the world into accepting a military solution which threatens the future of humanity, get your copy of the international bestseller: America's "War on Terrorism" by Michel Chossudovsky

As China, Russia, and the other so-called BRICS nations rise in economic and geopolitical power, interest in these countries' language and culture is increasing in the West. Dr. Thorsten Pattberg of Peking University examines the ways that translation of certain key concepts misrepresents history an...

Ultimately... it is up to the people, worldwide, to identify the corporate-financier power structures that provide the foundation from which this sweeping genocidal, domineering campaign is being carried out - and then boycott and replace it utterly out of existence. Because when the parasitic global elite are done picking the bones of nations afar, they will turn in on their own people - as has always happened throughout human history.

by Tony Cartalucci: This illustrates yet another justification for Russia and China, and other nations to begin fully resisting the mafioso protection racket that is the UN Security Council and yet another attempt to foist a war of aggression and conquest onto the population of the world.

Hey there! Thanks for dropping by Occupy Monsanto! Take a look around and grab the RSS feed to stay updated. See you around!

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation posted a Request for Information last month calling on IT companies to demonstrate their ability to design software for monitoring, mapping and analyzing social media.

tv.globalresearch.ca

Find out more about the history of government spying and propaganda through social media on this week's edition of Behind the Headlines with James Corbett.

rt.com

Twitter has sold billions of archived tweets believed to have vanished forever. A privacy row has erupted as hundreds of companies queue up to purchase users’ personal information from the new database.

by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers: This is Part I of a two part series on infiltration of Occupy and what the movement can do about limiting the damage of those who seek to destroy us from within.

Tell Congress NOT to stop supporting the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards rule which would prevent 130,000 childhood asthma attacks and up to 11,000 deaths a year. Please SIGN and SHARE to leave clean air for our future generations!

excellent update on what's happening NOW with the BP disaster, and what you can do about it, by Cherri Foytlin

I wish to commend you on your continuing work on behalf of the people still being affected by the 2010 BP Oil Catastrophe. As you know, on a daily basis the lifeless corpses of birds, fish, turtles and dolphins wash up at some 10 times the usual mortality rate. Thick, black, sticky, toxic oil contin...

Crossposted from Facing South. For residents of the Gulf Coast, the BP oil spill is an ongoing disaster that's still causing serious health problems, environmental damage and economic hardship in one of the nation's key fisheries and tourism centers.

The Gulf Monitoring Consortium, a partnership between Waterkeeper Alliance, SkyTruth, and SouthWings, has released its first report on oil pollution in the Gulf of Mexico. The report investigates several spills in the Gulf (including the Taylor Oil Spill) and highlights numerous deficiencies in the...

SHELL? Tripes on toast, they want to let SHELL drill in the arctic after the hellhole they made of Nigeria? NO! Tear down the docks, bust up the roads, plow up the runways. Don't let those lying bastards anywhere NEAR the arctic! And they don't give a shit what a mistake will 'cost' (the cost being entirely incalculable in any case, because there are many things there is no way to fix, as BP ...See More

I agree. The jobs are a shuck, the cheap gas for America is a fairy tale, and the risk is one we cannot afford to take. There is no substitute for water, and what we have is all that there is.

WASHINGTON -- The White House is throwing its support behind a decision by TransCanada to build a portion of the Keystone XL pipeline, even though the project will result in more oil going overseas and potentially higher gas prices. TransCanada announced Monday that it plans to begin building the so...

Quote of the Day from This Is What Democracy Looks: "Like I notice, and when you really take a look at what happened and has been happening, what you see is not only ecodide but genocide. Genocide doesn't just kill people, it kills whole cutures, whole ways of living, of being. Nothing can ever be the same. It doesn't stop at tragedy, it is apocalyptic. The worst-hit parts of the Gulf Coast will never be anything like the same again. BP is guilty of both genocide and ecocide, as well as general murder, destruction, and corruption of every desciption, and I will not be silent."

"But what if, hypothetically, BP's disaster in the Gulf was viewed as an act of domestic violence, as opposed to just a problem of pollution and corporate irresponsibility? After all, corporations are treated as people for political campaigning and lobbying, and so many of BP's disasters have reached far into our homes, leaving devastating impacts on families and workers."

Last week, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier decided that in the civil trial against BP for their oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the oil company’s history of accidents and poor safety records won’t be admissible as evidence. Maybe that’s appropriate; I’m no legal expert so I can’t make that call...

excellent news from Louisiana Environmental Action Network! check it out... Have you had any experience with illness related to the BP disaster? With the Gulf Coast Detoxification Project? Tell us about it in the comments

By the Louisiana Environmental Action Network. Health Concerns have gone unaddressed for too long. Detoxification program providing first sign of real solutions. It has been almost two years now since we began raising concerns about the possible health impacts of the Oil Disaster of 2010. We worke...

HOUSTON, TEXAS - Local literary nonprofit Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say is organizing The Librotraficantes Banned Book Caravan from Houston, Texas to Tucson, Arizona leaving Houston on Monday, March 12 and culminating in Tucson, Arizona Saturday, March 17.

Go Vermont! Yet again!

Vermont has taken the initiative against Monsanto and other biotechnology corporations in launching new legislation that would require the labeling of products containing genetically modified ingredients.

Despite its oil well causing the worst spill in U.S. history, oil giant BP has enjoyed increased business with the Department of Defense. Sales of BP fuel to the Pentagon rose 33%, from $1.02 billion in 2010—when the Gulf of Mexico became fouled with oil—to $1.35 billion in 2011.

BP currently has 19 separate misconduct cases pending, most of them dealing with the Gulf of Mexico oil rig explosion and oil spill.

I wish I could say that I’m surprised when I see evidence of widespread corruption and injustice, but nowadays it seems like situations that aren’t corrupt are the rare ones. The Big Fix starts with the mistakes and oversights that occurred when British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico and the oil vein it had pierced deep under the water began to leak into the Gulf. From there we get to see just how horrible the situation is, and how the mandate from above, whether it be the government or BP itself, becomes one not of correction but of cover-up. As long as things look okay, people will assume they are. Unfortunately, it appears that they’re nowhere near okay.

When meeting strangers in the wild, dolphins whistle signature tunes that may be the animal equivalent of "Hello, my name is…" stickers. These signature whistles have been observed in captive dolphins for decades, but new research is the first to reveal how these sea mammals use the sounds when one ...

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimated the first bits of tsunami debris will make landfall soon on small atolls northwest of the main Hawaiian Islands. The rest of the debris was expected to reach the coasts of Oregon, Washington state, Alaska and Canada around 2014.

Lumber, boats and other debris ripped from Japanese coastal towns by tsunamis last year have spread across some 3,000 miles to areas halfway across the North Pacific.

NEW ORLEANS - Occupy NOLA protesters plan to hold a funeral service and procession Wednesday for the Gulf of Mexico. The group said the waterway was murdered by BP, Transocean and other accomplices. The procession begins at 1 p.m. at BP headquarters in the 1200 block of Poydras. A coffin will then be carried to federal court on Poydras Street.

Occupy NOLA protesters plan to hold a funeral service and procession Wednesday for the Gulf of Mexico.

Prosecutors said Hudson was employed by Helmerich & Payne as a drilling rig manager aboard Rig 206 in May 2010, during a period of heightened vigilance on oil rigs following the deadly blowout that killed 11 crew members aboard the Deepwater Horizon operated by BP Plc (BP/) — an unrelated incident that triggered the nation’s worst offshore oil spill.

BP's efforts to revamp its PR operation have been dealt a blow by the decision of Maitland's George Trefgarne to pull out of taking a global comms role at the firm. However, the decision is also thought to have been influenced by the level of instability in the BP comms function.

For more of the science on the BP oil spill and its lingering effects, read the following. You will understand why BP oil matters, especially as the DOJ is negotiating with BP over the compensation for this disaster. Can you put a price on our fragile...

The Dept of Justice may reach a settlement with BP for about $25 billion dollars... Cherri Foytlin writes:

"The questions unasked are: Do those affected want a settlement? Is it in our, or the world’s, best interest to set an easy pay out as a precedence for future drilling disasters? And most importantly, how can any settlement be reached regarding the future, with so little information, assessment, or response to current needs?

In short, how will we know what magic number would be enough?"

They are calling it “the biggest environmental litigation in the country’s history.” And why shouldn’t they? It is the biggest environmental disaster in American history; in fact, the largest in the history of the oil industry - ever. The trial, concerning the 2010 BP Deepwater Drilling Disaster, w...

An clean-up worker and tourist describe their experiences following the BP Oil Disaster of 2010. This video was shot and edited by South Louisiana musician a...

Conservation groups in Texas are deeply worried that if a settlement is reached before the RESTORE Act is passed, the BP fines might be sent to the Treasury, not to Texas and the other Gulf states for environmental restoration and economic recovery.

Regarding "BP spill trial pushed back as talks go on" (Page A1, Monday), BP and the U.S. Justice Department are trying to reach a settlement before going to trial to determine the amount that BP will owe for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Conservation groups in Texas are deeply worried ...

The Rena's captain pleaded guilty to operating a vessel in a dangerous manner, releasing toxic substances, and attempting to pervert the course of justice by altering the ship's documents, Maritime NZ said in a statement.

The U.S. Coast Guard plans to muscle up its Arctic presence this summer, patrolling for the first time in a new marine frontier where the ice is melting and ocean-going ship traffic is on the rise.

Today a Shell drill ship attempted to sail towards the Arctic to begin drilling for oil off the coast of Alaska – but it didn’t get far. Activists are blocking the departure of the ship, which is scheduled to begin drilling in treacherous Arctic waters later this year.

Shale gas extraction was halted last year after it was linked to a series of tremors in Lancashire, but drilling companies are keen to restart

The Arrowhead Landfill, located in Uniontown, AL (population 1,775) was permitted by ADEM to dispose of nearly all the coal ash removed from Harriman as a result of the TVA spill (4 million tons). Instead of using protective management techniques, the ash was dumped in mounds as high as 60 feet with nothing covering them. From the front porch of several Uniontown homes, residents have only mounds of coal ash from TN to gaze upon and air contaminated by the dust to breath. The dumped ash rises above the tree line and is within 100 feet of their front steps.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been sitting on a proposed coal ash standard for nearly 15 months. Without environmental standards for protection from this toxic waste, 54 residents of Perry County, AL had little recourse but to file a civil rights complaint a...

Fukushima Diary

‎"Congress shall make NO law...ABRIDGING...the RIGHT of the PEOPLE peaceably to ASSEMBLE, and to PETITION the Government for a redress of grievances." -First Amendment Mr. President, you swore an inauguration oath that you "will to the best

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday morning appeared divided along party lines, with a conservative majority ready to hold that corporations cannot be held accountable in federal courts for international human rights violations. The Court was hearing oral argument in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Pet...

A Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday will present lawmakers with their first opportunity to begin tearing down the indefinite detention provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), but two of the nation’s leading civil rights groups are warning that Republicans have take...

‎-- IBM Corp. has laid off roughly 1,100 workers in North America this week, a union organizing group said Tuesday. Lee Conrad, national coordinator at Alliance(at)IBM, said that employees are reporting that the cuts have been made across business segments in the U.S. and some parts of Canada.

Pierre Beaudet, active in international solidarity and social movements in Quebec, is founder of Quebec NGO Alternatives, and Editor of the Nouveaux cahiers du socialisme. He blogs on rabble.ca in English and French.

Canada International leader to International embarrassment in one government.

Embassy is CanadaÕs influential foreign policy newspaper. With a weekly readership of over 60,000 it is the forum for debate on international issues for politicians, foreign policy experts, diplomats, aid workers, the military, leaders in trade and business and immigrant communities in Canada.

OTTAWA - Court documents show a cellphone in the robocalls affair was registered to Pierre Poutine of Separatist Street in Joliette, Que.Elections Canada's chief investigator says the clearly fake name was likely used to cover the tracks of whoever was behind misleading and harassing calls to voters...

OTTAWA — Promising to reveal information that would make "your blood boil," a Conservative senator opened a new front in the federal government’s attack against environmentalists Tuesday. “There is political manipulation.

If senior people within the Conservative Party of Canada conspired to rig the May 2011 election, what are the consequences? For Stephen Harper’s party, the penalties could be very, very significant. They range from fines and jail time to deregistration of Harper’s party and liquidation of its assets...

Canadians have to get angry."

"When the Conservatives twice shut down this place there were sporadic protests and rallies packed with opposition operatives, but most Canadians couldn’t spell prorogue, let alone care about the ramifications.

When they were found to have violated Elections Canada spending rules in the so-called “in-and-out” case, Canadians not only yawned, they couldn’t understand the accounting skullduggery.
...Continue Reading

The need for public servants to know if they will lose their jobs in the upcoming budget takes a back seat to the Conservative government’s right to secretly finalize its spending cuts and the “messaging” around them, says Treasury Board’s chief human resources officer.

"What is most nauseating about the Harper Conservatives is their sanctimonious hypocrisy. They cloak themselves in the rhetoric of “integrity” and their religious “faith.” It is all baloney. Their pompous, self-righteous, and contrived “virtue” is nothing more than smoke and mirrors. They went to Ottawa on their high horses of “honesty, accountability, and openness,” but, once there, they gave Parliament and the people of Canada the Bronx salute."

Times-Pic letter to the editor says "jails are more like hotels."... uh, not really, says someone with a loved one in Orleans Parish Prison.

In a letter to the editors of the Times-Picayune this month, New Orleans resident Mona Castillo wrote that the key to decreasing crime is to make prison "less comfortable." She wrote, "At the present time, jails are more like hotels. Many prisoners live better there than they did on the outside."

There's proposed legislation in the US (sponsored by Lamar Smith) and in Canada (sponsored by Vic Toews) and in the UK that uses various flimsy justifications for the mass collection of data on telecommunications users. The data covered by...

We are coming close to ending Harper's majority, through by-elections - or petitioning the Governer General to dissolve parliament for a full election! You must act within 30 days of finding out about election fraud in your riding!...

As a former investment banker and Assistant Secretary of Housing, Catherine Austin Fitts spent years learning how the system really works. Now, she spends her time teaching people about that system and how they can invest their time, effort and money in building a system that works to generate real wealth.

The human cost of EU-mandated austerity in Greece is being felt like never before. Cuts and slashes in spending have left hospitals short of medicine, workers short of cash and many ill Greeks out of luck. But the NATO chief's visit to Greece suggests the military may remain largely immune.

It seems the US military leaves traces everywhere it goes around the globe, even in America. The Defense department is said to be the biggest polluter on the planet and the mess may just be too expensive for the Pentagon to clean up.

In January 2010, a 7.0 earthquake devastated Haiti. The international community, including one out of two Americans, pledged billions of dollars in aid, yet the nation has seen little improvement. Three hundred thousand died, nearly two million live in ramshackle tent cities. Cholera has swept through the population, killing thousands and hospitalizing many others. Only about 2% of the rubble has been cleared.

Is this what you expected when you pledged your aid dollars? Independent journalists Film@11.tv journeyed to Haiti in November 2010 to see the situation for themselves, and dig into the burning question: what happened to all that money?

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I've been 'around' for a few years now, pursuing the shifting goal of a sharable home-made surfers resource site focused on ease of use and variety of mostly adult ( whoa : I didn't say prurient ) content.